


A Hospital Bed for Two.

by alwaysforyouscully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mention of Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26366830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysforyouscully/pseuds/alwaysforyouscully
Summary: Slight AU during the Cancer Arc. A little angst with a little fluff.Just a short fic to get me back in the game.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	A Hospital Bed for Two.

This Tuesday is an unexpected turn on the oncology wards day-to-day of Dana Scully's treatment, Mr. Mulder is here in the early morning light of day. His clandestine visits in the cover of night forgone for a higher purpose.

The nurses no longer look up as he walks past their station, they know it's a futile cause to try and stop him. Mulder strides past, day old suit and tired eyes. He's long past the stage of caring what they say anyway. He's spent the better part of the last 36 hours negotiating with the devil himself and he's in no mood to deal with their rules at the moment. Scully needs him, he feels it and he won't be denied, not this morning.

As the nurse at the desk begins to speak, Mulder holds up his hand to stop her questioning, “I belong here.” he says as he pushes Scully's door open.

She sits on the edge of the small hospital bed, gripping the rail, sweat beaded on her upper lip. When she looks up to see Mulder coming in, her eyes grow wide and she tries to wave him out, “please Mulder, no.” but it's no use and he rushes to her just as she empties her stomach across herself and the bed sheets.

“Oh, Scully. Here, let me help you.” Scully wants to protest but doesn't have the strength. Her eyes glance to the clock on the wall as Mulder calls the nurses station to come clean her bed. 

“Let's get you cleaned up.” He eases his arm around her back and helps bring her feet to the floor, in an effort to get her to the bathroom.

“Mulder? My mom? She is usually here at this time. Can you call and check on her?”

“Sure, let's just get you cleaned up and I'll call her in just a minute.”

Mulder starts the shower and helps her remove her soiled gown and slips off her hospital socks. Scully blushes slightly at her state of undress but is comforted to have Mulder here even if this isn't how she envisioned the first time he would undress her. Mulder, ever the gentleman averts his eyes as much as he can and helps Scully sit on the shower seat inside the stall.

“Is the temperature okay, Scully? Do you need a little more hot water?”

“It feels nice, thank you. I can never seem to get warm, these days.” Mulder frowns as he looks at her from behind, the bony points of her spine creating a mountain range of death down her back. He swallows the lump in his throat and stands.

“Let me go check on the bed and call your mom, I'll be right back.” Scully doesn't miss the crack in his voice and scolds herself for not making him wait for the nurse to help her shower.

Mulder steps out of the bathroom and heaves a breath. He knows it won't be long and he knows when her end comes, his will too. He sees the nurse has stripped the bed and clean sheets are perched on the foot board in a hurried clump but no clean gown in sight. He figures another patient on this floor has met a similar fate as Scully's, the nurse rushing to another's aid so he hurriedly makes the bed himself. Once done he realizes he left his phone in the car and calls to Scully that he will be right back and to not get out of the shower alone. Mulder rushes out to his car and grabs his go bag and phone, dialing Maggie Scully on his way back in.

A jumbled “Hello?” is the response on the other end of the line. 

“Ms. Scully? It's Fox” Maggie is fully awake at the sound of his voice. 

“Fox, Fox! Is she alright! Oh my God! I just..I overslept! Fox!”

No, no Ms. Scully everything is fine. I'm here. She was just worried that you weren't here as usual and she asked me to call and check on you. She's freshening up, just now. Why don't you just take some time this morning and rest. I know Dana would want you to rest.”

“Thank you, Fox. I'll come by later this afternoon.”

The line went dead and Mulder walks back to Scully's room with the knowledge he would have her to himself for at least the next few hours. He looks on the bed and still no scratchy hospital gown so he digs in his bag for his favorite Knicks shirt and heads to the bathroom. Scully is leaning forward trying to wash her hair, shoulders shaking with the effort. 

Mulder drops the shirt on the counter and takes her hands away. “Here, here. Let me.” Knowing Scully like he did, he knew he was taking he life in his own hands. At any other time than this she would have lit into him with a force of a thousand red-haired hurricanes but today her arms just fall to her sides. The sight hurts him more than he could fathom. Without words he lathered her hair and gently tilted her head back to rinse the shampoo out. He reached for the soap and gestures to her with the bar. Scully nods and Mulder takes a washcloth off the rack in the shower to wet under the spray.

“No, Mulder.” Mulder sighs, if he could take his self outside and kick his own ass, he would. Of course the washcloth was too rough, her skin was practically translucent, it was so thin. 

He lathers his palms with the soap and begins lightly rubbing her arms, he had dreamed of doing this so many times. Holding Scully against his chest as they lounged in her tub, slowly soaping her, caressing her until she begged him to take her to bed. To lavish attention to her smooth, pale skin until they were one. That now seems like a lifetime ago and in actuality it soon will be. He pushes those thoughts down and raises Scully's left arm. He soaps under her arm, down her side and back up to just under her breast. The pause wouldn't be noticed by anyone looking on but both Mulder and Scully feel it and then it's over. Mulder slides his open palm over her left breast up to her neck and back down over her right. Any tension either was holding over this much intimacy was washed down the drain on iridescent domes of the antiseptic soap bubbles. Mulder continues, having her stand and then holding her waist as Scully washes her most intimate areas, he helps her rinse then dries her body before sitting her on the closed toilet seat to towel dry her hair. He works quickly because her knows she'll be cold.

Tossing the towels to the floor he says, “Arms up, little lady.” Eyebrow raised but arms up in the air, Scully sits still as Mulder pulls his shirt over her arms and down her body. He smiles at his work just before,

“Mulder? What is this? I can't.. I ...my mom or Bill or...” She moves her mouth like a guppy out of water before Mulder leans in and brushes his lips over hers. 

“Scully, please. It's soft, it's clean and I know of at least three occasions where this shirt 'accidentally' made it into your bag so,”

“Mulder that is not, that's not what happened. I mean yes, it was in my bag but I didn't..” Mulder laughs. Laughs like he hasn't in months and Scully smiles, a little color coming to her cheeks. God it feels good. “Come on, let's get you back to bed.”

Mulder helps her up on the bed and reaches in his bag for a pair of white athletic socks. As he digs, he tells Scully her mom just overslept and that he told her to take the morning off. Mulder finds the socks and kneels in front of the bed to put the socks on her feet, as he does he can't help but notice a specific piece of clothing missing from Scully's wardrobe, he shifts his eyes back to her feet but not before his ears turn pink and suddenly Scully realizes his dilemma.

“Top drawer, I like the blue ones.” Scully is grinning from ear to ear, her pale gums showing over her white teeth. Dark circles hide her bright eyes but God she's never been more beautiful to him. Mulder stumbles to his feet and goes to the small dresser. This isn't how he imagined his first encounter with Dana Scully's panty drawer but it has been a day of firsts, so he really can't complain. Picking up the blue cotton panties he brings them to her and turns around, Scully lays back and pulls them on with the last bit of strength she can muster. Laying back on the pillow, she reaches for him arm.

“Mulder, thank you. It's so nice to have you here in the daylight.”

“I just don't want to intrude on your family, Scully. It's important for them to spend time with you before..” Mulder stops, suddenly overcome by the words he can't bring himself to say. The death word, the end word, the I'll never see you again words. It's too much and the air in the room becomes too heavy to breathe. Scully pulls him closer and pats the side of the bed next to her.

“I will always have time for you, Mulder. Always. Come up here, I'm cold.” Mulder, on any other day, would pause or crack a joke or throw some of his best innuendos her way but not today. His shoes hit the floor with a thud, and he's beside her, tugging at his tie and inching closer to her slight body. Somehow the planets align and Mulder is again next to Scully, yin and yang. 

Scully settles her still damp head on his chest, Mulder lightly strokes the strains as she drifts to sleep, dosing on and off as he stares at her profile. The nurse with the forgotten gown returns and sees all is well before whispering she'll bring lunch by in a few minutes. Mulder shifts from under Scully's sleeping form and goes to the bathroom, he cleans up the mess from her shower and uses the bathroom. When he returns Scully is awake and smiles when she sees him.

“I thought is was a dream, for a minute.”

Mulder hops on the bed. “Not a nightmare, I hope?”

“No, not even close. I was just thinking about you and me and that maybe we should..”

The door opens and a too cheery nurse strides in. “Here you are. Bon Appetit!” She sits the tray down on the bed table and scurries out just as quick as she came.

“You thought maybe we should do what, Scully?” The hopeful look on Mulder's face breaks her heart. She knows he feels it, she knows he wants the same as she does but it's wrong to put him through it. Scully was just so caught up in the moment, just so in love and too weak to fight it but she knows in her heart it's too little, too late and she can't bear to do this to him, not now. 

“Oh you know, maybe find a sci-fi marathon on TV and spend the day debunking the theories.” Her smile is as fake as they come and she knows Mulder won't buy it for a second. She wants him to press her on it, to make her fight for her lie of omission but he doesn't, he adjusts the bed to a sitting position and reaches for the remote. He finds Tremors just starting on the Syfy channel and begins unwrapping her lunch. 

“Your wish is my command, Miss Scully.” he jokes with no real lightness in his voice, he wants to call her on her lie. He wants to hold her and kiss her and tell her he sold his soul to that cigarette smoking son of a bitch for a vial of worthless water but he doesn't. If truth be told he's just as scared as she is to cross the line. What's coming will be hard enough without knowing the last few secrets her heart holds. 

Mulder divides her lunch between them but Scully turns up her nose, not willing to have a repeat of earlier. “Your loss, Scully. Look at this gourmet spread.” But even he can't help but laugh at the sight. Mulder eats the dry turkey sandwich, while Scully nibbles lime Jell-o and sips ginger ale. It's not a roadside diner but it feels like home and they slip into their usual banter over the obvious untruths of the existence of subterranean worms that unfolds on the screen. 

Mulder reclines the bed slightly as Scully weaves her theory about how a massive creature like this cannot exist without notice. Her voice as determined as always, just not as strong as a few months ago. He is awash in the wave of normal for the moment, the sharp edge of Scully's skeptic pathways cutting through his believer's landscape. The scalpel of her mind against his soft, pliant heart. He drifts off at some point and is jostled awake by the soft press of Scully's lips on his own. He stills and feels her settle into his side.

“I love you, Mulder.”

He feels a warm spot on his chest and swallows to keep his own tears at bay. He wants to tell her he loves her too but doesn't want to embarrass her by letting on he heard her confession, so he tightens his arms around her and drifts back to sleep.

Both are roused by a booming sound out in the hallway. A voice muffled but unmistakeably raised in anger.

“How the hell did you let this happen? Doesn't this hospital have rules on visitors?”

“Bill, stop it. Let them be!”

“I will not let that man find comfort in killing another one of my sisters! Now get him out of there!” 

Maggie grabs Bill's arm and pulls him away from the door, “Please be quiet, I'll take care of this.”

Scully doesn't move but speaks into Mulder's dress shirt. “Do you think he'll make us get married, now that you made a impure woman out of me?”

Mulder can feel her smile and takes that as an opening. “Dana Katherine Scully, will you marry me?”


End file.
